this Society, several hundreds of these libraries have been issued, and the number sent out this year has amounted to twenty-six. They have been carried to the Mediterranean, Australia, Africa, America, West Indies, China, East Indies, including almost every considerable port in the world. The effect of this agency may not be very marked, but, though silent, it is certain. The youth taught in the Sabbath school reads the very book his teacher used to recommend; or, perhaps, the thoughtless sailor takes up the volume he remembers to have been a favourite with his pious mother. What associations are at once suggested! What recollections are revived! The silent tear may be brushed off, and the impression may seem to fade, but a chord has been struck, and a feeling quickened, the result of which may be seen after many days.

Our senior missionary testifies, that these useful books, thousands of which are now in circulation, have been rendered a blessing to multitudes, and letters have been received from many captains, of a most pleasing and satisfactory character.

RELIGIOUS TRACTS.

These remarks apply with equal force to the distribution of religious tracts. Of these, 50,000, at least, have been circulated during the year. They have been given away at lodging-houses, in the docks, on board ships, at our provincial ports, and have been sent to almost every part of the world.

The Committee cannot refer either to their lending libraries, or to the distribution of tracts, without expressing their lasting obligations to the Religious Tract Society, whose liberality in this, as in preceding years, they have largely shared.

The Directors will close their report of operations in the Port of London, by referring to their efforts in connexion with the visitation of

LODGING-HOUSES.

Of the importance of this department of labour they are increasingly convinced, and, would their funds admit of the expenditure, they would have appointed an agent exclusively devoted to it. They have, however, paid considerable attention to this sphere of usefulness, as the subjoined statement of the senior missionary will show :—

"Sailors' boarding-houses, which are the common receptacles for our foreigngoing sailors, are visited as often as opportunity will allow, and religious tracts are distributed amongst their inmates, religious conversation is held with them on the things that make for their peace, and we trust that our interviews with the men have

not been in vain. Many have been induced to accompany me to the house of God, and there are circumstances which prove beyond all doubt that our visits to these houses have been greatly blessed."

The locality of the Sailor's Church, in the very midst of boardinghouses where the foreign-going sailors resort, will furnish to your missionaries a favourable opportunity, systematically, to visit them, and the Committee propose to direct increased attention to operations in which many of their constituents take a lively interest. Nor have the evils of the crimping system been overlooked. This subject has been repeatedly brought before the attention of the readers of the "Sailors' Magazine, and the remedies for those evils have been pointed out. Your Directors have also had the question of a registry office frequently before them, and have recently obtain from Liverpool, where such an office is working immense benefit to the sailor, a number of papers relative to that subject; and, should the state of their funds justify the step, they indulge the hope that they shall be able to adopt a plan by which to rescue the sailor from a system whose ruinous influence, both upon his temporal and his highest interests, no language can describe. One of the worst evils of that infamous system is the encouragement it holds forth to the indulgence of the master passion of the sailor, the love of intoxicating drink. It is by means of the fatal cup that the crimp first allures his victim, and by it that he subsequently holds him in his fetters; and, could your Committee carry out a well-organised scheme for the breaking up of that system, they would be the instruments of saving many a brave and noble-hearted tar from one of the most degrading vices in the power of which he can be held. They are happy, however, to report, that the cause of temperance is progressing amongst these men. During the winter many meetings were held in Ebenezer Chapel for the promotion of that object, and considerable numbers signed the pledge of total abstinence, from some of whom your secretary and missionaries have received most delightful testimonies in favour of the advantages derived from their present habits of entire abstinence from all intoxicating drink.

The report of your committee respecting their

PROVINCIAL OPERATIONS

is of an encouraging nature. Previously to the commencement of 1844 they had adopted

LONG REACH

as a station, and had engaged the services of an agent who had been

strongly recommended to them. During a part of last summer the strike among the colliers in the north greatly reduced the number of ships that lay in that part of the river. This, however, was but temporary, and now, as formerly, large fleets of vessels continually furnish to your missionary an important sphere of labour. Perhaps there is no spot in the whole world in which so many seamen have been converted to God as at Long Reach. The numbers that meet there-the leisure they enjoy—and the zeal of pious captains and others in preaching the word, have made the spot celebrated amongst our coasting vessels. If others have laboured there with success, so also has your agent.

I have the pleasure (he writes) of knowing that you have not employed me here in vain. Many an awakening have I seen. Some have begun to pray who never prayed before. There have been no less than six persons on board one ship, who, within the last two voyages, while lying in Long Reach, have begun to pray; three of whom profess to have found mercy, whilst the other three are, I trust, earnestly seeking redemption through the blood of Christ. Much of this must be attributed to the holy example and incessant prayers of the captain, who seems to travail in birth for souls. I have, however, laboured amongst them several times both voyages, and assisted in leading them to God. During the last year I have visited nearly one thousand vessels, have given away 3558 tracts, and 300 covered magazines; have held 90 meetings on ship board, attended by 1534 sailors, of whom 231 were captains, and 314 engaged in prayer. Besides this I have spoken and prayed with many at my own house, and have held frequent conversations with the men belonging to ships lying at the Wharfs.

RAMSGATE

is also an important scene of operations. At certain states of the wind, large fleets of shipping are compelled to seek the shelter of its spacious harbour, and thus supply to your agent an inviting sphere of labour. There are also, at all times of the year, considerable numbers of boatmen and fishermen who with their wives and families, share in his efforts for their good. He reports as follows

"I have now been engaged here for eighteen months as the town and sailors' missionary, and during that period I have regularly carried on the services of the Sailors' chapel. During the summer months, from July to October, I hold only one service in the week, that is on the Lord's-day evening, and the attendance of our seamen and fishermen during this season is small; but the wives and families are tolerably regular. The men who keep pleasure boats are generally engaged till eight or nine in the evening, and they are always waiting on the pier anxiously soliciting the visitors to employ them. As to the men who are called " Hovellers," they seldom or ever can be induced to attend at all, winter or summer. I have been here two winters, and from October till April we have two services on the Lord's-day after

noon and evening, as well as a service on Wednesday evening; and, when there are many sailors in the harbour, a prayer-meeting as well. The attendance of the sailors varies from ten to sixty or seventy, just as they may be driven in here; it gives me much pleasure to say, that I have always observed them attentive and well-behaved, while not a few have expressed their thanks for the privilege of having a place of their own-regularly supplied, and free from any charge.

SHOREHAM.

The reports received from your agent in this port have always been of a cheering nature. It does not afford an extensive scene of usefulness, but the opportunities supplied have been seized, and the seed sown besides all waters has, in many instances, produced abundant fruit. Your agent writes

TORQUAY,

a small port in Devon, visited by fishermen and smaller vessels, has received as much attention as its extent claims.

NEWCASTLE.

The prospects of the sailors' cause at this port are most cheering. From the concurrence of various causes, the auxiliary had, during the past year, greatly declined, and the removal of the valuable missionary to Scotland threatened its extinction. At this juncture, a communication was received by your committee, inviting them to undertake the entire responsibility of the mission, and endeavour to resuscitate a cause confessedly of great importance. The Directors conditionally complied with that application. They instructed their junior missionary to proceed thither, to make arrangements for the re-formation of the committee, and the commencement, under more vigorous superintendence, of the operations of the society. His labours there have been crowned with complete success, and they anticipate that brighter days will shine on the mission, than the friends of the sailors' cause have ever seen.

At the neighbouring port of

NORTH AND SOUTH SHIELDS,

the sailors' cause has, since the death of the missionary in 1843, greatly languished. Your committee are, however, not without hopes, that they shall have, at their next annual meeting, to report more favourably upon it. One gentleman in South Shields has offered to raise £50 per

Ι

annum, could a mission be established, and an agent engaged. Should this not be effected, the Directors are prepared to make a small grant to a gentleman well qualified for the work, and who will devote a portion of his time to the interests of sailors.

IRELAND.

The hopes expressed by the Directors in their last report respecting the formation of a mission on an extensive scale in Dublin, have been most unexpectedly disappointed. Difficulties which they could not foresee sprung up, which, hitherto, have prevented the formation of the auxiliary, and have occasioned serious obstructions to the successful prosecution of labours among the seamen who visit that port. Should these difficulties be removed, your Committee are still prepared to co-operate with the ministers and friends there, in this good work.

The only place to which any portion of your funds is applied, is

NEWRY,

to whose Committee a small sum is annually given, and from whence an encouraging report has been received.

FOREIGN OPERATIONS.

The satisfaction with which the Committee refer to this branch of their exertions, is greatly diminished by an overwhelming sense of the vastness of the field, and the disproportionate amount of labour devoted to it.

The only ports to which pecuniary assistance is granted, are Amsterdam and the Cape of Good Hope.

AMSTERDAM,

with whose Committee they have for some time maintained a friendly correspondence, and to whom a grant of money, with books and tracts, is annually made.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

During the past year, the treasurer of the local society has been in England, and much gratifying communication has been held with him. A cordial union has been effected with that association; and the annual grant your Committee has engaged to make, will greatly assist them in their labours.